Epilogue
Ruby
Late March
I sit on the back porch steps with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders while the late afternoon sun dips low behind the trees. The air smells like fresh dirt with the first hints of spring grass.
Samson stands beside the pig pen as if he built it himself. Delilah curls protectively around her newest litter while piglets tumble over each other in the straw.
“Look at them,” I laugh.
Tiny pink bodies with a light coating of black and white hair—little squeals. Absolute chaos. One of the piglets wanders too far from the group. Samson grunts loudly and nudges it right back toward Delilah.
“Overprotective already,” Xavier mutters behind me.
I glance back over my shoulder. He leans against the porch railing with his arms crossed, watching the pigs like he’s coaching a football team.
“You say that like you’re not the same way.”
His head snaps back. “I’m not that bad.”
I stare at him.
“Okay,” he admits. “Maybe a little.”
I laugh and push myself to my feet, brushing a piece of lint off my jeans. My stomach curves visibly now. Not huge, but there’s no hiding it anymore.
Samson grunts proudly again.
“Good job, Dad,” I tell him.
Xavier chuckles. “Come on.” He tips his head toward the garage.
“Where’re we going?”
“Shop.”
Suspicion creeps into my voice. “You’ve been hiding out there for weeks.”
“Working.”
“Suspicious working.”
His mouth twitches. “You studying every night made it pretty easy to hide things.”
I narrow my eyes at him but follow anyway. The old garage that he’s turned into a workshop smells like sawdust and fresh-cut wood. After Xavier flips up the switch, fluorescent lights leave a warm glow across the workbench and rows of tools.
“What’re you up to?”
He gestures toward the back corner. “Go look.”
I walk forward. Then stop. A bassinet sits beside the workbench. Handmade. Smooth, curved wood polished to a soft shine. Pink bedding tucked inside. Beautiful.
My breath catches. “Xavier…” I move closer, fingertips brushing along the wood. “You made this.”
“I finished it this morning.”
Emotion swells hard in my chest. The bassinet is perfect.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper as I trace my index finger over the etched words on the end of the bassinet. Little girl, big heart. If it’s a boy, he’ll have to re-etch it.
His expression softens at the look on my face.
I blink rapidly against sudden tears. “You built our baby a bassinet.”
“Figured she deserved something better than store-bought.” He’s always said it was a girl, but the way he says it holds more conviction than usual.
I laugh through the tears threatening my eyes. “She?” A tear slips down my cheek. He nods. “Really?”
“Really.” Xavier’s smile deepens as a flush settles over his cheeks. “I know we said we didn’t care, but when the doctor wrote the sex down, I might’ve peeked.”
“Of course, you did.” I roll my eyes.
“It wasn’t on purpose.”
“You just said you peeked.”
“Fine.” He waves his hand in the air. “Be picky.” His face sobers. “I wanted to make sure the saying was right so that everything was perfect. Because you deserve perfect.”
Warmth floods my chest all over again. “A girl,” I whisper. The word feels unreal. Magical. Terrifying. Perfect. I rest my hand against my stomach. “A little girl.”
“You’re already planning matching outfits with Squirt, aren’t you?”
I gasp dramatically. “You know me so well.”
“I’m afraid.”
I laugh again and glance back toward the bassinet. “I love it.”
“Good.”
My attention drifts back to Xavier. The man before me is perfect. I couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend and baby daddy. He’s everything I ever dreamed of rolled into one beautiful man.
I brace my hands on my hips. “Now, we have to figure out where it goes.”
My brain starts whirling. If I move my dresser, the bassinet can go against the bedroom wall. I don’t want the baby to be too far away from us, and the spare bedroom is across the house. Not to mention, it’s been turned into my office for school.
Clearly, I should’ve already been thinking about this. My heart skips a beat. There are less than three months before the baby is born.
Xavier cups my cheek. “Take a deep breath. We’ll figure everything out together.”
“Okay.” The instant his thumb brushes along my cheekbone, my anxiety drops down to a manageable level. He’s really good at that.
“We’ll keep her in the bedroom until we’re ready for her to be in a separate room, and then she’ll go into the nursery.”
“Nursery?” I arch a brow as he drops his arm down to his side. “We don’t have a nursery.”
“We will.” His voice softens as he says it, and he points to the blueprints on the workbench. “I have the plans here.”
I clutch my chest. He’s planning to build our baby a nursery. My chest is going to explode. I turn toward him and wrinkle my nose. He’s not standing where he was a second ago.
Xavier kneels on the concrete floor, and my heart is pounding so hard I hear it. “Xavier…”
His hand shakes when he pulls a small black box from his pocket. That alone nearly wrecks me. Because Xavier never looks nervous. Not like this.
He exhales roughly once before opening the box. A simple diamond catches beneath the overhead lights. Beautiful. Classic. Perfect.
His eyes lift back to mine. And for one second, he looks terrified. “I had this whole speech planned,” he admits roughly. “Turns out I’m bad at those when they matter.”
“Yeah?” My breath catches over the lump in my throat.
“Yeah.” He nods his head once and looks down briefly before meeting my eyes again. “I don’t even know what I was doing before you.” The words hit hard enough to steal my breath again.
“I mean it,” he says. “This house. You. The baby. The pigs.”
“You’re crazy.” I laugh through tears.
His expression softens. “I’ll never get tired of hearing you laugh. You made all this feel…” He shakes his head. “Real.”
Emotion climbs painfully into my throat.
“I used to think I’d never be in another relationship.” His thumb brushes against the ring box. “Then you happened.”
My vision blurs.
“You made me want things I never thought I’d want.” His voice catches. “And now I can’t picture my life without you in it.”
Tears spill freely down my cheeks now.
Xavier laughs under his breath when he sees them. “Ah, hell. Now I’m gonna lose it too.”
That makes me cry harder.
He shakes his head once and looks up at me with so much love in his eyes it physically hurts. “I love you, Ruby.”
The words are simple, but they’re the only things that matter.
“You’re gonna be an incredible mom.” His gaze drops briefly toward my stomach before lifting again. “And I want all of it. The messy stuff. The scary stuff. The forever stuff.”
A tear slips down his cheek before he can stop it. And that destroys whatever control I had left.
He laughs shakily. “See? This is why I shouldn’t plan speeches.”
I laugh through my tears and wipe beneath my eyes. “No. You don’t get to do that.”
His brow furrows. “Do what?”
“Say all of that and then make a joke because you’re scared.” His smile disappears. I step closer. “You spent so long believing people leave when things get hard.” My voice catches, but I keep going. “And then you spent months proving to me that you wouldn’t.”
His eyes shine again. “Ruby–”
“So, I need you to believe me now.” I interrupt him and reach for his free hand.
“I want the messy stuff too. I want mornings when neither of us has slept because she’s been screaming all night.
I want you hovering and driving me crazy.
I want arguments about kitchens and pigs and whatever else we manage to screw up. ”
A broken laugh escapes him. I squeeze his hand.
“I want you, Xavier. Not because everything got easy. I want you because I know what hard looks like with you now.” His face crumples enough to make my own tears fall faster.
“And I’m still here.” His fingers tighten around mine. “I’m not going to go anywhere.”
“Ruby….”
“I love you. I love the life we already have, and I want every ridiculous, complicated thing that comes next.” I glance at the ring trembling between his fingers. “You should probably ask me before I answer the question when you haven’t officially asked.”
He laughs, swiping beneath one eye. “Bossy.”
“You love it.”
“So fucking much.” Then he lifts the ring. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes.” The answer flies out of my mouth. No hesitation. No fear. Just certainty. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you.”
Relief crashes across his face so hard it almost looks painful. “Jesus Christ,” he breathes. “I love you.”
He slides the ring onto my finger, and I barely get a second to look at it before he stands and pulls me into his arms.
“I love you so much that it hurts,” he whispers against my mouth.
I kiss him through tears and laughter, his hands framing my face like I’m something precious.
Outside, piglets squeal loudly in the pen. Squirt grunts from somewhere near the porch. Spring wind drifts through the open garage door.
And wrapped in Xavier’s arms, with his ring on my finger and our daughter growing below my heart, I know exactly what forever looks like.
Messy. Loud. Probably covered in pig hair.
And ours.
****